Swiss police identify 24 of 40 victims from a New Year’s bar fire in Crans-Montana, including 11 minors, as owners face negligent manslaughter charges.
CRANS-MONTANA: Swiss authorities have identified 24 of the 40 people killed in a New Year’s Eve fire at a bar in the Crans-Montana ski resort.
The victims include 11 minors and six foreign nationals, police said on Sunday.
The bar’s owners, a French couple, are now under investigation for negligent manslaughter.
A heavy pall of grief hung over the town as hundreds attended a memorial service for the victims.
The inferno also left 119 people injured, many with severe burns.
“The world’s media are focused on our resort,” said Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey of Sion during the service.
“We thank them for seeking the compassion which the families of the injured and deceased so desperately need.”
Switzerland has declared January 9 a national day of mourning.
Church bells across the country will ring at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT), followed by a moment of silence.
“Many of the victims were apprentices, high school students, and university students,” said Pastor Gilles Cavin at the memorial mass.
Local police had previously identified eight Swiss victims.
They have now identified 10 more Swiss nationals, aged 14 to 31.
The newly identified foreign victims include two 16-year-old Italians and a 39-year-old Frenchman.
Also identified were a 16-year-old dual Italian-Emirati national, an 18-year-old Romanian, and an 18-year-old Turk.
The injured include 71 Swiss nationals and 14 French citizens.
Other injured foreigners are 11 Italians, four Serbs, and one person each from Belgium, Bosnia, Luxembourg, Poland, and Portugal.
“We are here to express our compassion, our solidarity,” Pastor Cavin told the packed church.
The church, located 300 metres from the bar, was full well before the service began.
Hundreds stood outside in -9° Celsius temperatures, some holding flowers.
Authorities believe the fire was caused by lit sparklers on champagne bottles igniting foam on the ceiling.
The bar, Le Constellation, was owned and managed by French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti.
It was crammed with young partygoers when the blaze began in the basement around 1:30 am on Thursday.
A criminal investigation has been opened against the pair.
They face charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence, and arson by negligence.
Investigations will focus on whether safety standards were respected.
Jacques Moretti insisted on Friday that all safety norms were followed at the bar.
The venue had a listed capacity of 300 people plus 40 on its terrace.
Video footage shows young people desperately trying to flee, some breaking windows.
One video shows the low wooden ceiling, covered with soundproofing foam, catching fire rapidly.
Experts suggest the “highly flammable” foam may have caused a flashover.
This is a near-simultaneous ignition of everything in an enclosed space.
The mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, said there was no negligence by the municipality.
For local resident Patricia Mazzoni, the tragedy is incomprehensible.
“How is this possible, especially in Switzerland? I never would have imagined it,” she said.
“I’m filled with a cold anger.”
